Tuesday, 21 July 2009

By way of a change, some aural stimulation provided by Signal, the collaborative collective of Carsten Nikolai (more prominently known under the alias of Alva Noto), Frank Bretschneider, and Olaf Bender (both former members of AG Geige, and all of them founders of the Raster-Noton label).

Friday, 3 July 2009

This request, as voiced by one of my readers, was partly sparked by that post of Garrel's La Cicatrice Intérieure, and constitutes another outstanding example of 1970s French experimentalism. So much for vacuous introductions.

ETA 07/29: All done.

"Out 1 has been accurately described as a “film-fleuve,” and though its current may be slow, its volume is massive; one could easily follow any one of its many tributaries to vast thematic territory: a documentary portrait of its era (so much of the film is shot in the open streets of Paris), individualism versus group dynamics, play and performances in and of the film, its use of mirrors as a dominant visual motif, its cinÈma vÈritÈ [sic] and handheld camera techniques borrowed from Jean Rouch, improvisational structures versus traditionally scripted execution, etc.

On first viewing, the film struck me as a deep meditation on the mythology, rehearsal, and excitement of groupmaking (acting troupes or political alliances) that envision changing the world but in the end find themselves abstracted and disorganized to the point of disintegration. It came as no surprise when Koehler compared the movie to Eustache’s equally absorbing The Mother and the Whore (1973) and other post-1968 films in which the dreams of political revolution are seen to fizzle and sputter into inactivity, personal tragedy, and even blithe denial. Out 1 is about the excitement of discovery and subversion, which is why it’s so well served by its formal system and mode of production. But as preparation, performance and seduction gradually drift into betrayal, lucidity and abandonment, its protagonists find themselves on the downward trough of a receding wave. “We laid out the principles but we never got further,” one conspirator confesses to another. “We committed without knowing our goal.” That the film wholly succeeds in being about–and an entrancing example of–that ebb and flow of unpredictable communal energy makes it an indelible cinematic adventure."

Credit shall go to whoever originally digitalised and distributed this. Technical data of this release can be consulted here. The english subtitles are a little hard to follow at times because they overlap with the Italian hardsub. Download: